


A New Horizon - ME2 post horizon cutscene dialogue for Garrus *spoilers*

by wingsofwindydays



Series: Mass Effect Cutscenes [1]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Background Liara T'Soni, Dialogue Heavy, F/M, Gen, Past Kaidan Alenko/Female Shepard, Post-Horizon (Mass Effect), Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-20
Updated: 2021-01-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:41:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28881879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingsofwindydays/pseuds/wingsofwindydays
Summary: A warm and friendly cutscene/conversation between Garrus and FemShep after the events on Horizon.
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Series: Mass Effect Cutscenes [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2118111
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	A New Horizon - ME2 post horizon cutscene dialogue for Garrus *spoilers*

**Author's Note:**

> This game is sad. It needs more warm fuzzies. And I am here to provide them. NOTE: I have not finished this game yet, so some of the things I've written may be inaccurate, it's just what I POSTULATE may have happened.

Shepard's face was carved alabaster, sculpted smooth and hard by the hands of the masters. Their blades allowed no room for lines of worry or strained looks of sadness to chip away at her stone facade. And yet, she felt something inside her breaking as she watched Kaidan turning away from her, walking out of her life and away from all the good memories they had shared. It was as if her right hand were being severed. She tried in vain to grasp at the meaning of his words. Missing were the days when simple alliances and grand ideals kept them company in the deep dark of space. Now it was only reapers, collectors, Geth, and blackness approaching.

"I'll never work for Cerberus. Be careful out there, Shepard."

She could feel the stone inside her giving way to hollowness as she watched him walking away. The memory replayed in her mind over and over, like a broken record. She had asked him to stay. Was there anything more she could have offered to convince him that this was the right path? Was she convinced that it was?

She'd been forced by the hand of fate to cheat death, but it came at a high price. All the family and friends she had once known were now splintered, cast out into the darkness like the debris of distant asteroid belts. Each captured in the orbit of a faraway star. Who knows if they would return home to her again.

Overhead in the viewing window of the C.O.’s quarters, the stars passed slowly by, not offering an answer. They simply glimmered softly back down at her. A thousand eyes of a thousand worlds and galaxies beyond. Watching.

"Do you have any idea what it was like to lose you? Its like...losing a limb. We'd heard about Cerberus, but you were just a rumor. But now..."

Her chest burned with the thought of the betrayal in Alenko's eyes. She knew somewhere beyond the granite and marble of the façade that he was right. They had caught some of the fallout of Cerberus and their reckless approach to the Geth, and here she was, working for the hellhounds to stop yet another esoteric foe. It was a revolving door of mystery and intrigue, always at the cost of thousands of lives, some under her own hand or outside her ability to control.

It was too much to handle alone in the silence. Rising from the bed, Shepard could feel in her bones the ache being torn from the veil of what lies beyond this life. It was only two years, but somehow it felt as though she had aged a thousand, and awoken to a completely different world. The cybernetic implants chafed against the inside of her like overheated electric nodes. Quickly, she strode from the room, trying to leave behind the memories.

Kaidan's words echoed in the hallways of the rebuilt body of Normandy. The memories of missing crewmates drifted through the deck, passing between the living crew as Shepard quietly observed. She imagined Tali's burbling laughter as she and Liara would attempt to cook in the mess. Kaidan and Ashley's banter over playing games of cards or dice. Wrex and Garrus arguing with the quarter master over which types of armor design were best.

They were so bright and vivid in her memory, then. They had been beside her every step of the way, bearing the weight of life’s trials for so long that the lines between crew and family had blended into something else, something more. In each of them, Shepard had found a heart of gold, wisdom beyond years, courage beyond calling. And now...they were gone.

Ashley's final words rang in Shepard's ears again.

"I don't regret a thing."

The ghosts began to fade back into silent emptiness as Shepard slowly trailed the bridge deck, the engineering bay, the crew quarters, and finally to the secondary deck. She trudged past the mess and the med bay. The hallway seemed to stretch out forever as Shepard wandered through distant planets covered in ice, glowing creatures, beautiful alien suns all cast out into the far reaches of memory. Perhaps she was still dreaming, still stuck wherever she had been when she wasn't quite alive, not quite dead.

As the hallway loomed, Shepard's footsteps slowed until she came to a stop outside the scanner of the door to the main battery. Her eyes fell into the depths of herself as her hands squeezed at her arms, wishing that everything didn't feel so unreal. Eons seemed to pass in the cold and quiet of her thoughts before reverie broke to the sound of hydraulic door panels sliding open. Shepard looked up. In the doorway, a familiar silhouette came into view. Garrus's slender, birdlike form appeared, and in the light of the battery arrays, a halo seemed to emanate from him. Archangel.

"Oh, Shepard, I didn't see...you..." Garrus stopped at the look on Shepard's face.

"Ok, who died this time?" He said, attempting at the normally crass banter the two of them often fondly exchanged. Shepard did not reply and did not seem to register his words. Garrus shifted his weight, narrowing his blue eyes with concern.

"That bad, huh? Must be something serious if that didn't get a chuckle at least. _Did_ someone die? I mean--actually, well. That's a terrible question, forget I said it," he fumbled, fidgeting with the bandages still covering the wounds on his mandible and neck. Shepard watched in slow motion as the slim, graceful Turian hand drifted through the air and delicately landed on the intricate facial appendages. Her eyes travelled along the shining plating and blue decorative war paint until her eyes met with his.

There was a moment of understanding between them, then. Garrus's expression changed from concern to sympathy. "You're thinking about Alenko," he said softly.

Shepard's eyes filled with something, though she couldn't rightly describe it. Not tears, because such displays had been abandoned long ago and traded in for the stone and the brass of military service. But Garrus could sense the intensity of the feeling even so. He reached the long hand out toward the commander and turned partially back toward the battery room.

"Why don't you come in for a moment. I'm almost done with these calibrations for now. Besides, it's been a while since we caught up. Hm?"

Shepard nodded, straightening her posture again and stepping inside the doors after Garrus.

"I'm afraid it's not much in the way of comfort," said the Turian, offering Shepard a stack of crates to sit on once he cleared paperwork and electronics from them. "But then again, people like us aren't accustomed to the finer things anyhow."

The ghost of a smile haunted the edge of Shepard's mouth as she sat, still feeling like a hollowed cavern. "I'd take a foxhole and an MRE over a fancy dinner dress any day. I don't know how people like Kasumi and Hocks keep it up, but I guess I'm starting to understand with how much money the Illusive Man is slinging at us. Even hardened Marines and gangbusting snipers have their limits of temptation, right?"

Garrus chuckled, his deep voice like river over smooth stones. "Oh, is that what you were doing with the Alliance thief? Rubbing elbows with nobles in some kind of finery? Well I suppose I missed the opportunity to sling some of those credits at a good show then."

"You really did. We smuggled weapons into the guy's house in a giant statue of Saren. Talk about flashbacks."

"You've got to be joking."

"Serious as the grave," said Shepard, crossing her heart.

Garrus grinned, in the way that the Turian do by ruffling their facial appendages. The amusement read in his bright eyes. "So how was it paying homage to our greatest foe again?"

"Eh, can't say I was turned on looking at him. It's the ghoulish eyes, never did much for me, you know?"

"Yeah, Saren wasn't born lucky and handsome. Not like me," Garrus replied, running two long fingers over the long bony ridges protruding from the back of his temples.

Shepard laughed in earnest this time, watching her friend preen for her benefit. After a moment, her laughter receded into a bright smile. "I missed this."

Garrus smiled back in his reserved way. "Me too."

There was a pause, then, and the silence hung heavily in it again. After a moment, Garrus leaned back against the railing near the console and crossed his ankles.

"Two years is a long time, it seems."

Shepard's smile faded somewhat, and she nodded. "Yeah. It is."

"Do you remember anything from when you were--um--well--"

Shepard shook her head, looking down to her hands as they traced the outlines of old scars set into the flesh. "No. Not really, anyway. Just snippets here and there when Miranda would wake me by accident. I didn't even dream...at least I don't think..."

"Probably for the best. Things were...hard...after you were gone. For all of us. Not everybody handled it well."

Shepard looked up and met the cool blue eyes again. "What happened to them, Garrus? The crew?"

Garrus pondered, tracing his jaw with a long finger. "Wrex was a success, if you ask me. He returned to Tuchanka to rally the krogan and rebuild their society. Take up the mantle left behind by his father. He respected you a lot, you know. More than I've ever seen a krogan respect...well anyone really. Joker said he got grounded. He seems happy enough to take up the helm again. Alenko, though, he's a military man, through and through. He fell but rose onwards and upwards. But losing you...it changed him. He lost a little of that spark. I don't think it'll turn him bad or anything. Kid’s much too noble for that. But harder, sadder, maybe more determined. He fought hard to uphold your legacy, keep us all together. But in the end the spirit of the crew had different plans, I guess. Tali returned to her people, that's all I really know. Although I suppose she seemed more cynical after...well...you know. Like the exuberance of her pilgrimage had worn off..."

"What about Liara?" Shepard asked then, her expression growing intense again.

"Liara...well...Liara said she was taking the loss in stride. Philosophically, like the Asari often do. But I don't know, she just seemed to get more desperate as time went on. Driven, I suppose I'd say, but to an extreme. She was determined to find out as much as she could about the Protheans and the Geth and the Reapers, especially after the Council officially dismissed the fact that the Reapers are planning on returning and covered up the incident with Sovereign. She fought with the ambassadors and the Council. I'm actually a little surprised they let her get away with some of the things she said. But I suppose they humored her, since she was the daughter of Matriarch Benezia. She's an impassioned one, Liara is. She's got heart. Perhaps a little too much."

Shepard could feel the pain and hollowness behind the stone again. She tried to pull back from it, but the pain still crept into her voice. "Do you know where she is now?"

"She disappeared shortly after the story on your death went public. There's a rumor she's trying to track down the Shadow Broker. I'd have offered to go with her, but she didn't give any of us the chance. Just vanished."

Shepard nodded, swallowing against the dry lump in her throat. "And what about you," she said quietly, keeping her eyes on the scar over her left knuckle.

She could hear Garrus sigh deeply. "Me. Well...I suppose I did what any good Turian would do and threw all my grief and confusion into my work. I went back to C-Sec for a time and tried to play good soldier. But, as I mentioned, the cover-ups and the ignorance, the ineffectiveness of the policies, it was all too much for me. I told you about the contingent I had trained up on Omega, Sidonis, yadda yadda. And now here I am," said Garrus waving his hand and looking away.

Shepard watched him carefully. "Is that all?"

Garrus returned her gaze, then. "All? Well. I mean, no I suppose it isn't. But what's one to say when things loom large but they're behind us. I don't want to add more sorrow to this story, it's already depressing enough without my two cents added to it."

"I want to know...speak your mind, Garrus."

Garrus turned back and met her gaze. "Um, well...Shepard...it was a hard two years. Losing you was just...it was like the world shrank down two thirds of its size somehow. Like the whole galaxy became just an empty husk filled with lifeless rocks and mindless Geth drones, political fodder, corruption and ignorance.

And with the threat of reapers hanging over us like a dark cloud, and no one to believe it or fight for it like you did...well...it put a damper on the spirit of the team...my spirit...I suppose I'd say. The world has seemed a darker, harder place since that day when the Normandy crashed. I suppose some part of me gave up hope. I certainly never thought I’d see you again, and I didn't know what I was going to do for the rest of my life...Aha, now see? You've gotten me wrapped up in it. I'm such a sentimental..."

Shepard choked out a laugh, trying to bite down on tears threatening to well up in her eyes. Despite her efforts, a small tremble shook her jaw. The commander cleared her throat, looking down again at the scars on her hand. Something even the near godlike science of Cerberus could not erase from her.

"Oh, no. No no, see? Oh I told you I would make it worse. I--" Garrus stopped as Shepard held up a hand to him, sniffing as she straightened up, regaining the look of the commander again, though her eyes shone with unspent tears.

"No, Garrus. You didn't. Promise."

Garrus hesitated, seeming unsure of her statement, but then he sighed. "I'm just...I'm really glad to have you back...commander."

Shepard rolled her eyes and scooted herself over on the crate before patting the spot beside her. "Come on," she said, beckoning with her hand.

Garrus obliged, sitting down beside her lightly and leaning into his knees. Shepard did the same, lacing her fingers together and placing them under her chin thoughtfully. For a moment there was silence again, but this time a more comfortable quiet.

"Do you think this is all going to be worth it in the end?" Shepard said finally, her gaze travelling back into the distance.

"I mean, I know I do, or at least I think I do. But more importantly, I'm committed to finding out one way or another.

Shepard considered his statement, feeling it shoo away some of the ghosts haunting her.

"I'm glad to have you with me, Garrus. You've got a lot of heart, too. Aside from the stunning looks."

The Turian chuffed lightly. "Not impressed with Miranda and Jacob I take it? They're pretty good looking, you know, as far as humans go. I think"

Shepard shook her head, pursing her lips in thought. "No, I don't think they hold a candle to you, Archangel. Besides, I want off this rig and out of this deal as soon as possible. Cerberus and I may have aligned goals for now, and I guess I owe them a debt, but it's just not the way I do things."

"Yeah, well, the Council's no better, and the Alliance is getting a reputation for being just as ineffectual. Would you go back to the Alliance?"

"Dunno. Maybe after all this is over, I'll retire to a nice, quiet planet on the edge somewhere. Someplace tropical."

"I hear Virmire is nice."

Garrus and Shepard looked at one another and there was another pause before they both burst out laughing. All the guilt and grief seemed to unhinge itself, then, becoming laughter or madness, they could not be sure.

Shepard stood from the crate, clutching her heaving sides. "Oh ho, what would I do without this? Ah," she said, wiping the tears out of the corners of her eyes.

Slowly, she moved toward the door, turning to look back at Garrus as she the hydraulic panels whistled open. In the odd backlighting of the ship, Shepard's smile seemed to glow faintly as it faded into an expression of warmth.

"Thank you, Garrus."

"Of course, Shepard. Anytime. I'll be here if you need me."


End file.
